FIL mourns the loss of Russian Luge Federation President Leonid Gart
Berchtesgaden (pps) The International Luge Federation (FIL) is mourning the death of Leonid Gart. The President of the Russian Luge Federation has died in an accident during his holidays in Croatia. Gart, who left behind his wife and a child, would have celebrated his 39th birthday in December. “We are deeply shocked. We were bound by true friendship. We would like to express our deepest sympathy toward his family, but also towards the Russian Luge Federation,“ explained FIL President Josef Fendt in Berchtesgaden.
Gart became head of the Russian Luge Federation in June 2010. Under his leadership, Russian luge athletes earned three silver medals at the 2012 FIL Luge World Championships in Altenberg (GER), namely Albert Demchenko, Tatiana Ivanova as well as the relay team. These were the first World Championship medals for Russia after the end of the former USSR. Gart retained non-Russian experts such as Wolfgang Schaedler (Liechtenstein) and Martin Hillebrand (Germany) to give the Russian luge athletes the best possible preparation for the 2014 Olympic Games back “home” in Sochi.
Under Leonid Gart's presidency the Russian Natural Track Team managed to establish themselves as a world class team. In the 2012 European Championships in Novouralsk (RUS) they took three out of four gold medals (team event, women and doubles), in the world cup for the first time ever they claimed a spot on the podium in the men's event.
With his building company “GRM” Gart constructed the artificially refrigerated track in Paramonovo near Moscow, venue of the first FIL Luge European Championships in Russia. GRM was also involved in the construction works of the sports facilities for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
